


Jukebox Hero (Stars In His Eyes)

by rancheel



Series: Not A Man Or Machine, Just Something In Between [1]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: 5+1 Things, Almost Kiss, Amputation, Awkward Conversations, Awkward Tension, Billy Joel References, Blood, Blood and Injury, F/M, Hospitalization, Hospitals, Medical Conditions, Medical Inaccuracies, Medical Procedures, Medical Trauma, Medicine, Pre-Doctor Strange (2016), Psychological Trauma, References to ABBA, The Eagles (Band) References, Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-08
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-01-06 17:47:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18393314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rancheel/pseuds/rancheel
Summary: The five times you caught Stephen singing as he did work around the hospital and the one time he caught you.





	1. such a lovely place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephen Strange is a man with many abilities, but fixing faxing and printer machines isn't one of them.

You were never one to sing on the job. Usually, you get your work done as soon as possible and then end up doing paperwork or filing out-patient papers until you have to make your rounds to give medications and answer calls from rooms.

Stephen Strange was the complete opposite.

He was completing his residency program for neurology and was going through it with flying colors. You don’t know if he’s bribing one of the doctors on the floor or not, but you knew some of the neurosurgeons at Metro-General, and they were not easy to work with.

You haven’t even really met Stephen Strange personally, the more you think of it.

He was a friend of Christine’s, but you passed by him occasionally as you did rounds or ran things to doctors on other floors.

At times you even assisted with surgeries he had to partake in if it was necessary.

And he loved his music. You were certain of it.

When you were in the operating room with him and a few other collages for a small examination, you could hear him humming something by Pink Floyd.

Today it was different however.

He was full on singing.

Like, almost borderline _“I’m in the shower and I’m going to belt this note as high as I possibly can,”_ singing.

You had just come back from another patient you had on your rounds in the night, only an hour into your shift.

Rubbing some required hand sanitizer into your skin, you rounded the corner of the hall to go and sit back at the nurses station, only to see Stephen start messing around with the outdated fax and printer machine.

His head was moving from side to side as he quietly sung an Eagles song.

It sounded like it was Hotel California, of all things.

“You know we’re in New York, right?” you joked, smirking teasingly his way as you finished rubbing your now sanitized hands before crossing your arms over your chest.

Stephen was quick to stop messing from the fax and printer machine as if he was a child caught playing with something he wasn’t supposed to touch.

“What?”

“You’re singing _Hotel California_ ,” you started slowly, uncrossing your arms to place your hands in your scrub pockets as you walked over to the small filing cabinet, “we’re in New York.”

Stephen huffed out a laugh as you opened the drawer you grabbed onto.

“You’re right, but what does that have to do with the song?”

You snorted quietly before looking through the small manila folder tabs for a patient you had in mind.

“Nothing, I was just wondering if you’d possibly take requests and try out singing _New York State of Mind_ by Billy Joel,” you reasoned casually, sending him a wide teasing smile as you pulled the folder and shove the drawer to the filing cabinet shut, turning to walk to one of the open computers before Stephen moved back to press a few buttons on the machine.

He scoffed and turned his head to watch you sit.

“Off of his 1976 album _Turnstiles?_ Please.”

Once you sat in your chair, you put down the folder and rose a brow, leaning back as you squinted.

“You got a problem with Billy Joel?”

“Not particularly,” Stephen said as he turned his gaze back to the machine, pressing a few buttons. You moved to your file and opened it, starting to try and log onto your computer you were at.

“Just not too fond of his voice and- _fuck!”_

You covered your mouth to hide your laugh as you heard a smack against the plastic over of the fax and printer machine.

“His voice and _fuck,_ you say?” you questioned amusingly, hearing Stephen sigh harshly before turning to look at you.

“ _Not_ funny, Y/L/N.”

“ _Very_ funny, as a matter of fact, Strange.” You got back up on your feet to move over to the machine to see what he was doing to be this irritated with it.

“What’d you do?” you asked, watching him almost robotically move aside to have you take a look.

“All I did was press a few buttons,” Stephen said, shifting to lean against the empty wall that was close by to watch your hands as you looked at the small screen that displayed the status of the fax selection Stephen made.

It’s error message was equally annoying as Stephen tried to tell you how to try and fix it.

“If you keep this up, I’ll slam your head on this thing,” you seethed as you shifted on your feet slightly to keep yourself calm, pressing and holding on the red end button.

“Oh please, _Billy Joel_ , you couldn’t hurt a fly,” Stephen said with a weird tone, almost as if to make fun of you.

You glared over at him as the error message vanished on the screen.

“Don’t try me, I could break your bones while naming them, remember,” you warned dramatically before lifting your finger off the red button to press down on the green one for a moment.

The both of you watched the machine in that moment, hearing it sputter.

However, that’s really all it did.

“Well, sounds like you’re gonna have to go to another floor to fax whatever you needed to fax,” you said before dramatically pouting up at Stephen.

Stephen let out a quiet chuckle and rolled his eyes, lifting the small drawer that held the paper in place.

“Thanks for your help, _Billy Joel.”_

You scoffed and started to move back to the computer you were about to log into before your phone was going off for one of your patients needs. You let out a quiet huff and started to walk past Stephen as you pulled your phone out to silence your pager app.

“See you around, _Hotel California,_ ” you said over your shoulder as you moved quickly down the hall and pocketing your phone again.

You let out a quiet laugh as you were a good distance away from the nurses station.

You really didn’t have much determination to tell him later on into your shift that the fax and printer machine didn’t work for shit on this floor if that’s the way he reacted to little things not going his way.


	2. don’t put him down as arrogant

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephen stumbles upon you in the hall and you find that he may actually have a heart.

It was a long night in your side of the ER.

Your 12 hour shift was slowly shifting into overtime as you were being stretched thin from the sudden ambulance arrivals from a serious car accident all the way across town.

You were the nurse that most doctors called on for the sudden amputation of two patients.

One of which you were capable of saving. The other however, your luck wasn’t the best.

The patient was a woman in her early twenties, and the poor girl had her arm practically hanging by a thread.

You had rushed back to the operating room after instructing one of your fellow nurses on what to do with the man who was now in the ICU before diving into helping the main surgeon try and successfully save the woman that came in with the man.

The timing just wasn’t right.

She lost a lot of blood from the accident as she moved from the ambulance to the halls of the hospital and ending up in the surgery room.

You were panting heavily when the doctor called the time of death and had your light blue scrubs completely covered in blood.

It wasn’t pretty.

You spent five minutes post surgery scrubbing your hands clean before you were heading to the closest break room so you could at least collect your thoughts.

You didn’t even make it down the empty hall that led to the room.

Your back pressed against the wall as you took a few deep breaths to try and keep yourself from crying before you started to slide down and let out a choked sob, your slightly blood stained hands covering your face as you kept trying to take in deep breaths.

You almost couldn’t hear the singing over the heavy breathing.

He noticed you the second he walked in the hallway.

Stephen was holding a clipboard that had some files he had yet to organize, along with a few sheets of notes for a few extra courses he had just come back from listening in on.

Stephen stopped walking once he heard your breathing pick up after you let out a choked sob.

He was quick to make his way down the hall as casual as possible before he moved to sit next to you on the tile of the floor, your shoulders gently bumping as he slid down.

It was silent between the two of you as your head dropped onto his shoulder slowly after your hands moved from your face to fall into your lap.

Stephen didn’t seem to mind it much and even shifted closer to you so you were comfortable.

He spoke up after you’d calmed down significantly, only sniffling and reaching to wipe your eyes gently.

“You know I was singing _Tom Sawyer_ -”

“From Rush’s 1981 album _Moving Pictures_ ,” you finished for him, uncrossing your legs to pull your knees into your chest. Stephen’s head turned down to look at you, raising a brow.

“What? It’s my dad’s favorite.”

Stephen let out a small hum and nod of understanding before you both fell back into a comfortable silence.

“I uh..” Stephen started once more, barely shifting to not disturb your comfort, “haven’t seen you around much in the past couple of days.”

You cleared your throat before taking a deep breath, starting to count the engraved tiles on the walls.

“I had a few days off, tonight was my first shift back for the week,” you reasoned quietly.

Stephen’s heart ached for you. He knows how hard it is losing a patient. He’s had to fight his own demons about it in his earlier days in his residency, and he took it just as hard himself.

The two of you didn’t really converse much, so seeing you this broken for the first time was.. Dare he think it, strange.

You were always the happy-go-lucky nurse that was happy and polite and never snapped at anyone.

Well, besides him, since he did try to get a rise out of you often because he’s  _him_ and he can’t help how he is.

Stephen watched as your eyes darted along the walls of the hall you two were sitting in before he let out a little dramatic huff before speaking once more.

“Did you know that Pink Floyd’s single _Another Brick In The Wall, Part Two_ sold over 2 million copies worldwide?”

He heard you sniffle before letting out a quiet scoff in response, feeling a gentle hit on his thigh.

“Actually, Stephen,” you started, moving both of your hands to wipe gently around your red eyes, “it was 4 million. Nice try.”

Stephen let out a soft laugh as he let his head gently hit the wall, letting his eyes roll back into his head.

“You’re sitting here, crying in the hallway, and yet you _still_ find the time to sass me.” Stephen felt you shift to lean your head on the wall like him instead of his shoulder, sniffling again as you let out a small huff of a laugh.

“I’m a human with many talents.”

The silence between you two was comfortable now. Less tense, still filled with the occasional sniffle from you.

Eventually, you took a deep breath.

“The patient was going to get her arm amputated, but there was too much blood loss for us to try and keep her with us,” you explained slowly, feeling your eyes sting again with tears as you let your legs slide down flat on the tile.

Stephen turned his head against the wall as he watched you look at your blood stained nails, a frown slowly adorning his features.

“Was that the accident from the Upper West Side?”

You nodded in reply as you let out a harsh sigh and pressed the heels of your hands into your eyes to stop the tears from coming out.

“I think the man w-was her boyfriend,” you reasoned carefully, feeling your throat start to tighten as you tried to hold back from crying again. “I don’t remember. He made it, however.”

Stephen carefully moved an arm around your shoulders and pulled you gently into his side.

“Hey,” he started softly, “you did your best, Y/N. Sometimes that’s all you can do.”

He was surprisingly comfortable as you wiped off any tears that had managed to leave your eyes, letting out a shaky sigh before turning your head to look up at Stephen, who had turned his head back forwards when he noticed you looking back at him.

“Thank you, Stephen,” you said quietly, a tiny smile blooming onto your red, teary face. Stephen turned his head back down to you and smiled back kindly.

He seemed like his eyes were flickering between your lips and your eyes. You really didn’t mind it, but it also seemed like a bad time to even think if he was  _actually_ trying to make a move or something on you.

“Of course.” Stephen shifted slightly to give you a little more space, keeping his arm around your shoulders before his head leaned back against the wall, drawing in a deep breath almost as if he was trying to calm himself down.

You let out a soft sigh and just moved to lean your head on his shoulder again as you let the silence of the hall calm the both of you for the evening.

Maybe Stephen Strange wasn’t  _so_  bad.


	3. things 'round here have changed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stephen has been making some advances on you recently and still won't take song requests.

You had your head on your crossed arms as you rested on the table in the break room, the sounds of the coffee maker buffering out some sounds of conversations you could still hear through the thin walls. 

You were _exhausted_. So damn exhausted.

This was the last time you say yes to covering Christine’s shift.

Something in the back of your mind was telling you that you’d definitely pick up another shift if she asked again, but you ignored it to the best of your ability and focused on hearing the door to the break room open and shut before quiet singing filled the room just as the coffee pot kicked off with the signal it was done.

You tried to tune it out and catch the five minute nap you promised yourself hours ago, but the voice was starting to become extremely loud and trying to sing Dexys Midnight Runners _Come On Eileen_ with as much energy as they had in the original 1982 recording.

Your head carefully lifted up from your arms as you glared hard into the back of Stephen Strange’s head and his dark purple scrubs as he worked on getting a small mug from the cabinet.

Quietly you looked around the table you sat at, seeing a styrofoam cup across from you on the table top.

Well, there’s your weapon of choice.

Carefully leaning over the edge of the table, you reached the cup as you heard Stephen’s singing persist followed by the clinking of the spoon hitting the sides of his mug as he stirred his coffee.

It was starting to become overpowered by the cover of the song he was performing at the moment.

You looked inside the cup to be sure that it was empty and had no little drops of anything in it before leaning back in the plastic break room chair and chuck it right at the back of Stephen’s head.

It connected just as he got to the last verse and was quick to place his mug down and look over his shoulder only to see you.

Your face must have shown your exhaustion pretty bad, considering his reaction was anything but happy and calm.

Stephen’s face was colored with concern before he finally spoke up.

“Y/N, did you just throw the cup at me?” He questioned slowly, raising a brow as he carefully turned to lean back against the counter, grabbing his small mug again.

“Yeah, Stephen. Yeah I did. Sing ABBA or something, it’s way too early for Eileen to come,” you said casually before crossing your arms flat over the table top once more and gently pressing your head into your forearms and let out a soft sigh, starting to try and get comfortable again.

“I thought Christine was working this morning?” Stephen asked softly as he tried to quietly tap the spoon on the edge of the coffee mug before placing it in the empty sink. You huffed and slowly pulled yourself back together to sit up.

“No, she had an emergency and texted me,” you explained, just realizing how exhausted your voice sounded.

You’ve been up for almost a whole 24 hours, now that you think about it.

Stephen hummed in understanding before taking a sip of coffee, nodding a little as he smacked his lips.

“Well, have you tried coffee?”

Your head slowly rolled over to look at him.

“ _Yes,_ Stephen. I’ve tried coffee,” you deadpanned, grunting as you started to stand up from your seat. “I should probably get back out there and check on a few patients—”

“Wait!” Stephen said way too loud for the both of you, his mug of coffee quickly meeting the counter top before reaching out for your hand.

You turned around and looked at him confused.

“I uh..” Stephen cleared his throat before wiggling his fingers slightly for you to grab his hand. “Have you ever tried slow dancing to _Come On Eileen_?”

“Why would you slow dance to an upbeat song that’s about wanting to nail your girlfriend?” You questioned, slowly taking a step closer as you slowly started to lift your hand closer to his. 

“Haven’t you ever been to a school dance?” Stephen asked teasingly before gently grasping your hand the second it touched his finger tips.

You wanted to jolt and pull your hand back, but you didn’t.

It felt oddly... _comfortable_.

“Uh, no, actually. Is slow dancing to songs like that a thing at those kind of gatherings?”

Stephen let out a huff of a laugh as he gently pulled you towards his tall frame.

“Sometimes. Do you know how to slow dance?”

You placed your free hand on Stephen’s warm shoulder, shrugging.

“I guess so. I’ve been to my fair share of weddings. Just don’t kill me with your _terrible_ singing. I have patients to get to once the song is over, Stephen.”

“ _Please_ Y/N, you think I would try and kill you on purpose?” He asked, raising a brow again innocently as his hand carefully settled on your waist as you let him start to lead you carefully around the break room.

“Feel free to join in at anytime, I’m sure you’ll kill me before I kill you.”

You scoffed and rolled your eyes, letting your hand shift in his firm grasp before Stephen’s smooth voice started to fill the silence between you both again as he picked up where he was cut off at earlier.

“ _Come on Eileen, oh, I swear—”_

“ _What he means_ ,” you whispered in response, the both of you starting to laugh as you did the back up vocals behind the main lyrics.

Stephen tried to hold back a remark as he kept singing, the both of you starting to move a little easier and quicker to the beat and taking turns at singing the lyrics while the other quietly did the back up vocals.

Somewhere along the line you and Stephen were trying hard to keep your giggling to a minimum as he held up his arm for you to spin.

That was probably a bad idea.

Right after you spun and finished your lyric, Stephen had practically yanked you back into him, which caused you to slam right into his chest.

You were quietly laughing as you tilted your head up to see Stephen already looking at you as he chuckled.

“You good?”

“Y-Yeah, I think so,” you confirmed softly after you stopped laughing, letting your eyes briefly glance down at his lips before looking back up into his eyes.

He must have gotten some kind of message, since he started to lean in and press his forehead into yours gently.

“You’re not too bad of a dancer, y’know.”

You let out a soft hum and closed your eyes as you felt Stephen’s grip on your hand tighten before you felt his nose brush against yours.

You could feel your lips just _inches_ away from his.

That's when you two both heard the door suddenly open.

“Hey, Stephen—”

Billy’s voice was an interesting thing to hear this early in the morning.

Stephen and you practically flew apart in an instant, you clearing your throat as you started to try and casually walk back over to the chair you once sat in while Stephen accidentally slammed himself back into the counter with a quiet groan.

“Yes, Billy?” Stephen strained, trying to casually reach over for his mug of coffee.

Billy’s eyes just moved between you and Stephen as he held up the file.

“Uh..”

“You know what? This seems important, I have some business to take care of anyways,” you started, forcing a kind smile over your shoulder as you stood up straight after you stopped leaning on the plastic chair to look at Stephen and Billy, patting your pockets to be sure you had everything before letting out a small huff while you started to walk towards the break room door.

“Have a nice rest of your shift, and start thinking about song request forms please, Stephen,” you said playfully, trying to lose the awkward tension in the room as you moved around Billy.

Stephen let out a _painfully_ awkward laugh before holding up his small mug in a small cheer to you.

“I’ll see what I can do, Y/N. Have fun out there.”

You wanted to dry heave at how horrifically awkward this whole situation was.

You just gave a small smile and nod in response before you threw the door open and started to walk out as if you were going down the hall but quickly leaned up against the wall next to the closing door to collect yourself and figure out what the hell just happened.

That's when you heard Billy start to speak up, finally.

“So... you and Y/N, huh?”

You heard a harsh groan come from Stephen before the door shut completely just as you started to really listen in to hear Stephen's response.

Stephen Strange was  _so close_  to kissing you andfor once you weren't too disgusted about that idea. He could still learn to take a request or two, though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Friday! This is one the first full MCU related fics that I've really posted since seeing Endgame and I really still don't know how to cope. 
> 
> Also, I'd like to happily announce that I'm going to try my best and make a little collection/series with ER Nurse!Reader and Stephen! I love them so much that my little drabble I wrote the other night inspired me to just keep giving myself a reason to write for them!
> 
> If you'd like to see anything specific with these two, just comment or send me an ask over on my tumblr!


End file.
